Nabbeun namja

The most emotionally satisfying pic to date by Korean iconoclast Kim Ki-duk.

The film works best as a passionate tale of obsessive love, with two people brought together under harrowing circumstances.

Low, mean and depressingly plausible.

What begins, rather promisingly, as a visceral yawp against class difference in contemporary South Korea slowly devolves into a prolonged exercise in pointless sadomasochism.

The audience is subjected to a series of emotional contortions, encouraged to experience them voyeuristically, and then scolded for doing so. The bathetic music Kim favors is profoundly at odds with his chilly attitude toward the characters.

Ghastly.

Becomes more and more confused, unpleasant and preposterous.